Confessions of Hidden Feelings! And Fleas!
by mae dreamless
Summary: Suguri almost gets fired! Teppei's dogs have fleas! Will both confess their love? Why is Suguri scraching her head?


FLEAS!

"Mmmmmm... No Teppei-kun, I don't want anymore dog food..." Suguri muttered as she slept. Teppei looked over at her and sighed. 'What will I do with you?' He thought. Lupin walked in and whined. He sat at Teppei's feet and looked up to him. "What? I'm not your owner! Go wake her up!" He said, pointing to the sleeping form. Lupin nodded doggishly, and went to lick her face. Teppei went downstairs to open shop when he noticed one of puppies was awake before all the rest. 'Why would a shiba puppy be awake at six in the morning?' he thought. On closer inspection, he noticed the little girl was scratching at herself. "Wha?" He picked her up, and saw something tiny jump from the pup. He gasped.

"FLEAS!" He yelled, and placed her quickly, but gently down, and went to the bottom of the stairs. "SUGURI! WAKE UP! GET DOWN HERE!"

Suguri stumbled down the stairs half-dressed, and on full alert. "What? What's wrong?" She asked clumsily.

Teppei glared at her, and then covered his eyes with his hands. "We have fleas. All the dogs need cleaned before they can be sold." He looked up at her again, "Get started!"

Suguri saluted him in a cute way, "Yessir! Teppei-san sir!" She giggled, which caused Teppei to glare at her again. She knitted her eyebrows and whined, "What?"

"Fleas are no laughing matter. No one wants to buy dogs with fleas! We are not a second-rate shelter!" He yelled due to the frustration of perhaps loosing business, and that fleas are just annoying. She recoiled, and hung her head low. "Sowy Teppei-san. I'll start right on it."

Teppei couldn't bear to see her like this, but he couldn't be soft on her. 'It's for her own good', he'd tell himself, but in reality he was just hiding secret feelings he himself didn't even know about. He sighed and pointed out where the flea remedy shampoo and conditioner were. "These have dust on them, do you use them often?" Suguri asked.

Teppei reminisced, "No, I've always kept all my dogs flea-free; even at the main shop we've never had a problem with fleas." He picked up the bottles, "These are just in case something like this was to come up."

Suguri took the puppy and put it into the water basin filled with water and flea medication. All went well until the shiba puppy became antsy and jumped onto Suguri. "Ah! Oh no! My shirt!" Her shirt indeed was now soaked. Teppei shook his head, to stifle his laughter.

"Go change." He said to her, "I'll finish with this one." She nodded, and did not hesitate to go.

After all the dogs were washed, Teppei finally turned over the 'open' sign to allow business to continue. 'I have only three hours of business left today!' He thought to himself. 'She wasn't much help anyway, all the dogs splashed her, and then she ran out of shirts so she used mine! I can't bear to look at her... Not when she looks so... cute wearing my shirt. Ugh! What am I thinking!' He sighed inwardly, and called for Suguri. She trotted up promptly, still wearing his shirt. "We're open now, go change," he told her, but then changed his mind. "Wait, Suguri. Where did the shiba puppy come from?" She looked sheepishly away from him, and answered, "Well, someone bought her when you were at the main shop, you know, when you left me in charge that day?" He nodded and waived her on. "Well, later that day, they brought the shiba back."

Teppei's jaw dropped, "What?"

Suguri quickly interjected, "I didn't tell you because it was like we had never sold her in the first place! I didn't think it mattered..."

Teppei took a squeaky toy and hit her in the head, "_IDIOT_! You can't do that on your own! You need to have any animal that is returned checked by a vet! You should know this; didn't I train you better? I could _fire_ you for this!"

Suguri, realizing she made a huge mistake, began to cry. "T-Teppei-san?"

"_What_?" He said icily.

"I'm sorry. I'm real sorry. I just..." Her tears made it impossible for her to continue on and she ran up to her room, "Please excuse me!"

"Suguri! I didn't mean to..." He started after her, but stopped as a customer came in. 'I'll talk to her later...' he thought as he conversed with the patron.

Closing time had finally come, and Suguri was still in her room. "I messed up big, hun Lupin," she asked him. He only snorted, and sat down. The last of her dirty clothing, from the dog-washing, was placed into her suitcase as Teppei walked in.

"Suguri. ... What are you doing?"

Her tears welled up again as she tried to explain, "You were probably going to fire me anyway, after my biggest mess up. All I do is cause mistakes and bad things to happen, so eventually you would... get... tired of me. So, I ... Just did you a favor." Suguri collapsed on the bed and sobbed loudly. Any other words were indecipherable, due to her tears.

Teppei's eyebrows knitted, "That's why you're crying?" The girl nodded. The boy sighed, "Oh Suguri, I could never fire you—"

The dog-crazy girl looked up, and sniffled, "Wha?"

Trying to back track, and make up for the slip, he rambled, "Uh, I just meant that I ... uh, am short handed and couldn't run my shop without your... Where... Where will you go?"

More sniffles came, but "I ... money ... saved," was audible.

"Oh, Suguri, no, I couldn't let you go out in the world alone, you can't take care of yourself! ..." Teppei stopped himself, and wondered if he was making the situation any better, but she had stopped crying so loud. He heard a quiet, "There's more."

He answered with a "Hm?" He didn't understand what she was getting at.

Suguri looked up into her employer's face, "You want to say something else; I know it. What... is it?"

The boy was shocked by this, although he didn't know why. He knew Suguri had some kind of six-sense with dogs, but maybe he just didn't except it to roll over to humans too. "Yeah, well, uh..." He knew the words were coming, even though he didn't want them to. Suddenly, Teppei took the tear-laden girl in his arms and held her close. "Suguri, I've wanted to say this for a long time. I... "He hesitated, how could he tell her what has been hidden even from himself all this time? He would try.

"Suguri, I love you."

The short haired girl shifted. Teppei let go slightly from his tight embrace. She said against his chest, "Teppei-san, I... I... love you too!" She hugged him tighter, and added, "but..."

" 'But...' ? What's wrong? Suguri...?" Teppei said worriedly, taking her by the shoulders.

She grinned, and said almost too happily, "I think I have fleas." The girl scratched at her head, like a dog, and continued to grin stupidly.

The love-laden boy let out a held breath and smiled while he ruffled her hair. He also scratched a little for her, right behind the ear. "Oh, Suguri," he chuckled.


End file.
